Eucharistic Adoration: Returning to the Sources into a NEW tradition - PDF document

Eucharistic Adoration: Returning to the Sources into a NEW tradition At the August meetings, you will recall that Sister Phyllis gave us a review of all things Vocations. She was creating 3 committees to discuss various aspects to assist the vocation efforts. One of those committees was to look at Eucharistic Adoration. Taking time to pray, to be with the Lord has a strong appeal to the young adults of today. Last Thursday Sisters Andree, Barbara K and I were at the Newman Center in Vermillion for a fireside chat; on Saturday we went to Schuyler for a young adult retreat. These young people only know Vatican II and many of them spoke in terms of their lives as “ ministry, ” T hey are very service oriented, but desire a prayer life that supports this. It is young people such as these that will be the future members of community. So, tonight I will be giving some historic background and. Vatican II documentation about Eucharistic Adoration, and then review for you the committee’s plans. Most of my presentation comes from the book “IN THE PRESENCE The Spirituality of the Euc haristic Adoration” by Sister Joan Rid ley, OSB, a member of the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration at Tucson, AZ. This book is now in our monastery library. If you have questions from this very short presentation, you may want to check it out for a more complete review of this issue. I would like to start with a brief history. In the early church the community acted on the belief that Christ’s presence endured and was not limited to the time of the celebration. For the early church, adoration was not worship of the inactive body of the Lord but always involved the action of our being taken up into Christ’s offering of himself to the Father in the event of his death – resurrection. St. Augustine writes of a prayer experience wherein Christ said to him regarding the reception of Communion, “It is not you [humans] who assimilate me [Christ] but it is I who assimilate you.” In other words, we are assimilated (/integrated) to the body, mind and will of Christ and to his Mystical Body – we are His body on earth. Eucharistic adoration is a devotion rooted firmly in the liturgy, which can strengthen the liturgical and spiritual life of the parish/community. That is not the memory for those of us who

experienced liturgy and adoration/Benediction prior to Vatican II. When I think about Benediction of the past I definitely think of the highest of high church experiences: several candelabras; a large-oversized – monstrance with far too many jewels and stones; the monstrance set up high, when possible and everyone praying in their own “corner” of the church. While some of the monstrances are still ornate the new designs are much simpler, in the shape of the chalice or a cross or even like a small tabernacle, at least smaller and not so ornate. Of course, then there was Benediction – after Mass – to give a blessing with the Blessed Sacrament to the community who had just received communion. The joy we discovered in Vatican II was that things can change – and do change. The mantra was “go back to your roots.” There has al ways been ebb and flow in the spirituality of the church – for each of us as individuals. If we had time to go around and share all the changes we’ve seen in our lives and the life of the Church it would be amazing: [There is t he “BIG” changes like Latin to English, non-participatory to dialogic liturgy; from only chant to modern compositions to name just a few.] I was looking for a good quote to add here about change. One often quoted is “ The only constant in life is CHANGE.” For those of us who lived long enough to know life before and after Vatican II, we may sometimes wonder if the church can remember that change is healthy. But our Pope Francis seems to be making that point clearer to us today. As the Mass has changed, and so too has Eucharistic Adoration changed – the theology and format. Even our terminology has changed. In the past we said “Benediction” or Exposition, but now we say Eucharistic Adoration. From early times we have had the Blessed Sacrament in reserve : taken home for communication each day and for family members unable to attend services; then later it was reserved for the sick and the dying. As time moved on, the Mass became a private function of the priest, less and less people received communion, there was the development of the private Mass which totally removed the idea of the Body of Christ present in the gathered assembly, and thus leads to an excessive emphasis only on the physical presence of Christ in the physical elements.

In the early 13 th century the feast of Corpus Christi began in Belgium as a way to express devotion to the Eucharist. Perpetual adoration started a few years later in France as a thanksgiving prayer for victory of King Louis VII. By the 14 th century: “ ...the custom developed of carrying the Blessed Sacrament in a procession through the town after the Mass on Corpus Christi Day. This was encouraged by the popes, some of whom granted special indulgences to all participants. The Council of Trent (1545-1563) solemnly approved and recommended the procession on Corpus Christi as a public profession of the Catholic faith in the real presence of Christ in the Holy Sacrament. ” In the 16 th century in Milan we have the practic e of “Forty Hours,” a concept based on the practice of the “women keeping watch” at the tomb of Jesus from Good Friday until Easter. I think Bishop Remi DeRoo and Rita Ferrone (MWF speaker) both mentioned that one of the liturgical developments of Vatican II was the re-emphasis on the Paschal Mystery. It seems to me there is value and possible meaning for us today in this 16 th century practice. How it is developed will look much different than the 16 th century practice and will be based on our understanding of Paschal Mystery today. Go back to your roots and find the meaning and value and then re-introduce it with our new understanding. After the Council of Trent more and more devotions with the exposition of the Eucharist became widespread. Our community, from its roots in Switzerland, is part of the development of those practices. Our sisters brought perpetual adoration of the exposed Blessed Sacrament with them. As late as the 1960s when I entered we still had Exposition and Benediction with Vespers. And the primary purpose for these 19 th & early 20 th century rituals was to make reparation for the sins of the world. Sounds like praying for a world in turmoil, as ours is today, is something to still be considered. Let’s take a look at this history from the view of the congregation. There was a deep desire for the people to be in communion with the Lord because they did not receive daily communion, not even weekly communion. [That “rule” to re ceive communion once a year comes out of this past.] The rituals of the Mass had become a mysterious practice of the priest at the altar, not a participation of all the faithful. Remember the priest had his back to the congregation. He was not allowed to raise the host very high at any time during the liturgy until the time of the

consecration so that people would not adore the unconsecrated species.(the connection to the emphasis of presence only in the species) Among the liturgical history journals it is said that people, wanting to see the host, now consecrated, would cry out “Raise it high er, Sir John /Sir Priest, raise it higher, running from church to church to be there in time for the consecration. Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament then becomes the way people experienced communion with the Lord. They wanted devotions that would create a sense of communion. Sister Joan describes the Mass and these devotions at the time after Trent as having become an “ocular” communion. Basically not much happens liturgically after the Council of Trent until the 20 th century. In 1905 Pope Pius X, in one of his early encyclicals, encouraged the practice of frequent communion. All of the Popes following him also worked at changing the attitudes and practices toward the Eucharist. Probably the most prolific changes of the 20 th century were at Vatican II. I’m not going to spend any time with this piece of history, since many of us have lived the Vatican II changes for 50 years, except to say that one of the major shifts in emphasis has been on Eucharist as ACTION rather than object – not just “Christ is present” but “Christ is present TO TRANSFORM US.” In all of these Vatican II changes there was never any intention of totally eliminating the veneration of the reserved sacrament. In 1967 the instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium was written. The chapters spoke about: 1. General principles in catechizing the people on the Eucharistic mystery; 2. General norms and celebrations for Sundays and weekdays; 3. Communion of the Faithful; 4. Reasons for reserving the Eucharist, prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, prayers for Eucharistic reservation; 5. Eucharistic devotions and processions, as well as Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Later, in 1973 the Congregation for Divine Worship wrote a decree entitled Holy Communion and the Worship of the Eucharist Outside of Mass.” This document was in 3 sections: 1. Eucharistic Exposition and Benediction, Processions, Congresses, 2. Holy Communion and Worship of the Eucharist Outside the Mass and 3. Administration of Communion and Viaticum to the sick by an Extraordinary Minister. In regard to Adoration there are several changes that have been made all of which were to make the connection between Eucharist/the Mass and adoration. [#81]